Improved railway-car coupling



0. M. WHITMAN.

lCar Coupling.

Patented Aug. 3, 1869.

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Letters Patent No. 93,381, :lated August 3, 1869i IMPROVED RAILWAY-CARCOPLING.

Thevschedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of thesame.

To all persons to whom these presents may come Be it known that I, OumM. NVHITMAN, of North Haverhill, of the county of Grafton, and StateofNew Hampshire, have made a new and useful invention, having reference toRailway-Car Couplings; and do hereby declare the same to be fullydescribed in the following specification, and represented in theaccompanying drawings, of whichi Figure 1 is a horizontal andlongitudinal section;

Figure 2, a vertical and longitudinal section; and

Figure 3, an end view of a draw-bar, and couplinglink and pin, having myinvention applied to them.

Figure 4 is a horizontal section, taken through the auxiliarypin-supporter, to be hereinafter described.'

In such drawings- A denotes the draw-bar;

B, the link; and

C, the link-holder.

The draw-bar has a trumpet or flaring mouth, a, opening from arectangular chamber, l1, extended lengthwise in the bar.

lhe link-holder C, formed with a truncated conical recess, c, in itsfront end, is arranged within the chamber b, so as to be capableo'fsliding lengthwise in it.

The truncation of the cone of the recess is in aline parallel to theaxis of such cone, and a little below it.

A helical spring, d, arl'anged within the link-holder C, bears against'a pin, e, projected from the middle of a block, f, -which is disposed atthe rear end'of the chamber b.

lhere is a projection, g, applied to the topof the link-holder, andextended beyond its front end, in manner as represented.

\Vhen the link-holder is advanced to its foremost position, thisprojection comes directly underneath the uppervhole h ofthelink-pinpassage h h'-, 'which goes down through the mouth of thedraw-bar.

'The purpose of the projection g is to support the link-pin in a raisedposition preparatory to the entrance ofthe link into the draw-bar, andin order that after it may have effected its entrance therein, the pinmay fall down and through the link, so as to couple the link to the bar.

The link, while passing into the draw-bar, will be driven against thefront end of the link-holder, and will crowd back such'holder, so as tocause the linksupporter or projection g to be forced away fromunderneath the pin.

The link Iform pointed or tapering at and near each extremity, in manneras shown at t i in the drawings.

rlhe part fi, by entering the conical recessv of the link-holder, willso tit to ,it as to cause such recess to hold the link either in ahorizontal position or at any desirable inclination relatively thereto.

`In carrying out my invention,l have combined with thc link-holder andits pin-supporter, a movable auxiliary pin-supporter,which is shown atD.

It consists of a bar or arm, pivoted, at its rear end, to the block f,so as to be capable of being turned horizontally on the pivot k.

It has extended from its front part and toward the vmain pin-supporter,a trapezoidal projection, l, such being arranged in manner asrepresented.

A spring, on, having one end fixed to the block f, bears, at its otherend, against the -auxiliary pin-supporter, and presses it`toward themain pin-supporter.

The link-holder, 4on having attained its extreme advanced position, willbe arrested by a stop, p, arranged inthe draw-bar in manner asrepresented.

The purpose of the auxiliary pin-supporter is to sustain the pin in anelevated position, or, after being drawn upward out of the link, in casethe main pinsupporter may not be in a position to so hold up the pin.

It frequently happens, that while the cars may be at rest, the lin-kwill be so pressed into the draw-bar as toforce and hold the link-holderso far back as to carry the main pin-supporter so far away from thepin-hole in the upper part of the mouth of the drawbar, that were thcpin to be drawn out of the link, there would be nothing to support thcpin in an elevated position in the said hole, as the link would preventthc link-holder from advancing far enough to carry the pin-supporterunderneath the hole.

In such case, 'were the pin placed in the hole, such pin wouldimmediately tall into its lowest position or through .the link, andthus, while it might be there, it would be impossiblel to draw the linkout of the drawbar so as to separate the cars.

NVith my auxiliary piu-supporter, the case will bc dilferent, for, itwill be seen, that such supporter, on thc link-holder being forced back,by the pressure of the link, will be. advanced laterally, by its spring,up to the pin, and as soon as the pin may be raised above it?, suchsupporter will be still further moved laterally so as to projectunderneath the upper pin-hole, and afford support lto the lower end ofthe pin, provided the pin be left or allowed to stand in such hole.

As the car may separate from that one next in rear of it, thelink-holder will advance and force the main pin-supporter against-thehypothcnusal side of the trapezoidal projection of the auxiliarypin-supporter, and thereby cause the latter supporter to be movedlaterally away from the pin, the main pin-supporter, at the same time,passing underneath the pin, so as to keep it in an elevated position,after the auxiliary supporter may havebcen. thus moved away from it.

From the above, it will be seen that a car-attendant, preparatory to aseparation of two cars, has only to pull up the pin and allow it standin the up'per hole of the pin-passage.

rIn case the main pin-supporter may he forced so far back by lthe linkas not to he in a condition to snpport; the pin, the auxiliarypin-supporter will perforrn the' ofliee, and while the ears may be inthe act of being drawn apart, Will be moved away from the pin 4by theInain supporter, which will move up and take the place of the auxiliarysupporter underneath the pin. l

The pin will thus be held up ready for another coupling of the earwithanother ear, andv when this takes place, thelnk of the latter will hedriven into the draw-bar of the former, and will push back its

